“A friend of mine, he graduated high school a year before I did. He came up to school one day and said, ‘They’re fixin’ to draft me. Let’s go and join something.’

“There were four of us who went to the Naval Reserve place in Houston. We all signed up for submarines and took their knowledge test. But because my friend walked in his sleep, the Navy wouldn’t take him.

“So instead, he went and joined the Air Force. They were looking for somebody to be a mess cook for General (Curtis) LeMay, who was head of the Air Force back in that time, the whole works. After he took their test, they came over to Crosby to check out everything about him. He passed and they sent him straight up there to Washington.

“He ended up staying in the Pentagon for four years and never did a darn thing except get up in the morning and fix LeMay’s breakfast. That was all he did, while we were down in those submarines.”

— Robert Gregory

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“Have you ever heard of ‘Dirty Jobs,’ that TV show where Mike Rowe used to do these jobs that nobody wants to do? One of his jobs was similar to what I did in the Air Force.

“We provided fuel system support for any aircraft, whether an F-16 or C-130. They have fuel tanks just like cars, except they’re gigantic. So to fix them, if you’re a mechanic, you have to suit up and crawl inside the tank. I started out as a mechanic and then ended up as a supervisor. 

“My biggest adventure was serving in Baghdad. We were there training a bunch of Iraqis, and we lived with them in their camps. It was dangerous, but it was interesting to actually learn their culture, learn to speak their language, and really befriend them while we were training them. They’re from a completely different culture, so it takes time. But I really think our role there was making a difference.”

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